So this week CBS is unveiling its most recent crime drama Elementary, which has Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson solving crime in the 21st century. This show has been in the works for awhile, and I remember thinking when I first learned about this in the winter that it seemed as if the writers were trying to ride the coattails of the success of the hugely popular BBC drama Sherlock, which also has Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson solving crime in the 21st century. There are some key differences with Elementary, though. For one thing, Holmes and Watson are stalking about the streets of New York City (you’d think the world revolves around New York City with how many shows are based there). But the biggest change of all–and this will be quite a shock, so brace yourselves–is that Dr. Watson is a woman.

Have you picked yourselves up off the floor yet? Good. With changes like these, I couldn’t help but think that the show would most likely be a train wreck. However, I will most likely be watching because my curiosity got the better of me; I have to see how bad of a train wreck it is going to be. And it will probably be a doozy judging from this bit of dialogue from the trailers:

Dr. Watson: “How do you guess everything?”

Holmes: “I don’t guess. I observe. And once I’ve observed, I deduce.”

Dr. Watson: “So how did you know I use to be a surgeon?”

And here is where I’m expecting a wonderfully detailed description, but to my shock, disbelief, and eventual ire, Holmes blithely answers, “Google. Not everything is deducible.”

I had to pick my jaw up off the floor after that, especially since I was remembering this scene from Sherlock: A Study in Pink:

John: “Is that it?”

Sherlock: “Is that what?”

John: “We only just met, and we’re gonna go look at a flat.”

Sherlock: “Problem?”

John: “We don’t know a thing about each other. I don’t know where we’re meeting; I don’t even know your name.”

Sherlock: “I know you’re an army doctor, and you’ve been invalided home from Afghanistan; I know you’ve got a brother who’s worried about you, but you won’t go to him for help because you don’t approve of him, possibly because he’s an alcoholic, more likely because he recently walked out on his wife, and I know your therapist thinks your limp is psychosomatic, quite correctly, I’m afraid. That’s enough to be going on with, don’t you think?”

And all of that was done without Google, ladies and gentlemen! Not everything is deducible, my foot.

One response to “Trying (and Failing) to Keep an Open Mind on the Holmes Front”

Am a huge fan of the BBC version. Won’t be watching the CBS version, but then I don’t watch much on any main stream network anymore. That aside, I prefer my Sherlock Holmes to clever and witty on his own.